BUDAPEST, Hungary (LifeSiteNews) – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said “everybody should be vaccinated” in a recent interview, ahead of a raft of new COVID-19 restrictions imposed by his government.
In an interview Friday with state-owned Kossuth Rádió, Orbán slammed the unvaccinated and said that “they will either get the jab or die,” Hungarian Today reported.
“We cannot avoid that everybody should be vaccinated at the end of the day,” he said. “In the end, even the anti-vaxxers will realize that they either get the jab or die.”
The PM also claimed that those who refuse the experimental COVID vaccine “pose a danger not only to themselves but to all others” and blamed vaccine hesitancy for an uptick in cases. “If everybody were inoculated, there would be no fourth wave or it would be just a small one,” Orbán said.
Though around 59 percent of Hungarians are “fully vaccinated” and 62 percent have had at least one jab, Hungary is facing a COVID-19 surge comparable to this time last year, before the vaccine rollout even began. The Eastern European country currently has more people being admitted to hospitals and put on ventilators than one year ago, according to Euractiv.
Citing a “fourth wave,” Orbán’s government imposed a nationwide mask mandate Saturday for enclosed spaces, except for sports arenas and offices. Other new measures include health passes for all public events with more than 500 people and mandatory boosters for all healthcare workers, who are temporarily prohibited from leaving their jobs.
Hungarian authorities previously empowered private businesses to mandate the vaccine for employees and made vaccination compulsory for state institutions. Hungary has a COVID-19 case fatality rate of just 3.3 percent, according to mortality analysis by Johns Hopkins University.
Despite his new mask rules, Orbán told Kossuth Rádió on Friday that masking and self-isolating “doesn’t protect us, only the vaccine does,” while at the same time acknowledging the failing efficacy of the jabs.
“And we are now also seeing, at least the experts are unanimous in saying, that four to six months after the second vaccination, the protective power of the vaccine weakens,” he said. “Therefore, a third vaccination is justified.”
“So we must not be under the illusion that we are protected if we go into lockdown, self-isolate and wear a mask. That doesn’t protect us, only the vaccine does,” he added.
Studies have repeatedly shown that mask requirements and stay-at-home orders have little impact on the spread of coronavirus. Recent data have also impugned the effectiveness of the vaccines, amid a wave of breakthrough cases in highly-vaccinated countries like Sweden and the U.K., where the “fully vaccinated” made up three-quarters of COVID deaths in September.
A study published earlier this month in the journal Science found that the efficacy of all three shots approved for use in the United States has dropped dramatically since February, with the Pfizer-BioNTech’s effectiveness against infection falling from 86 percent to 43 percent.
Along with increasingly failing to prevent virus deaths, the experimental jabs have been linked to an unprecedented amount of complications, including tens of thousands of fatal reactions.
Hungary has deployed the Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca vaccines and is the only EU member state to have widely used Russian and Chinese vaccines before approval from European regulators, Reuters reported.
Orbán has been known for his defense of religious liberty, life, and the family. A sweeping anti-pedophilia, pro-family law enacted by Orbán’s ruling coalition earlier this year banned pornographic content and depictions of homosexuality and transgenderism to children under age 18.
In the past year, Hungary has banned same-sex adoption, required disclaimers for pro-LGBT books targeting kids, and amended the national constitution to protect marriage and the natural family.
Orbán has ruled Hungary since 2010 and faces a tough election next spring against a pro-LGBT, globalist-backed challenger.